Six Principles for Project Integration in Large Projects
Large Projects tend to fail or to be delayed. Examples are big aerospace or infrastructure projects. Looking into the root causes, the main failure occurs at the interfaces between the involved disciplines. The project integration is usually underestimated and the experience with interdisciplinary projects is not sufficient. The involved people don't speak the same "language", sometimes they don't speak to each other at all. One method to overcome these issues is the agreement on common rules and practices. This contribution gives some practices that worked fine in large projects. The application of these principles helps to keep the interface between the involved parties working and to make the people understand each other. The contribution intends to be a practical guideline, therefore the principles are simple statements. Behind these statements, there is the idea of dealing with the integration effort in large projects properly. Project managers have to understand that the integration effort in large projects grows faster than the overall effort. This is due to the high complexity of these projects. This effort needs to be considered, it needs to be planned, executed and controlled. If projects managers understand that a large project is more than the sum of its parts, they will take care of the project integration. This will lower the probability of a failure or a delay.
Maren Kaling, Carsten Wolff:
Six Principles for Project Integration in Large Projects
Large Projects tend to fail or to be delayed. Examples are big aerospace or infrastructure projects. Looking into the root causes, the main failure occurs at the interfaces between the involved disciplines. The project integration is usually underestimated and the experience with interdisciplinary projects is not sufficient. The involved people don't speak the same "language", sometimes they don't speak to each other at all. One method to overcome these issues is the agreement on common rules and practices. This contribution gives some practices that worked fine in large projects. The application of these principles helps to keep the interface between the involved parties working and to make the people understand each other. The contribution intends to be a practical guideline, therefore the principles are simple statements. Behind these statements, there is the idea of dealing with the integration effort in large projects properly. Project managers have to understand that the integration effort in large projects grows faster than the overall effort. This is due to the high complexity of these projects. This effort needs to be considered, it needs to be planned, executed and controlled. If projects managers understand that a large project is more than the sum of its parts, they will take care of the project integration. This will lower the probability of a failure or a delay.